


We Learned the Whole of Love

by acertainslantoflight



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Crushes, Established Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Matchmaking, Sexual References, Underage Drinking, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:54:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28672566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acertainslantoflight/pseuds/acertainslantoflight
Summary: Remus and Sirius' long term relationship clearly makes them the perfect candidates for matchmaking James and Lily, who can't seem to admit how perfect they are for each other.Lily's general brilliance clearly makes her the perfect candidate for matchmaking Remus and Sirius, who can't seem to see how perfect they are for each other.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 6
Kudos: 74





	We Learned the Whole of Love

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy this bit of fluff, I had so much fun writing it so hopefully you have fun reading!
> 
> Title is Emily Dickinson's, not mine.
> 
> I listened to this playlist on repeat while writing this and would recommend it while reading for added vibes: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/32jZjvjyAyVyt9gGoL1X7v?si=abqQOSlqSkqAPBUzGFg4rg

There is one thing that is incredibly obvious to Lily Evans: Remus Lupin and Sirius Black are made for each other. It’s obvious; they’re super affectionate, they seem to both have a superhuman ability for knowing however the other is feeling and whatever they need in any particular moment and she’s pretty sure their banter airs more on the side of flirting. Lily thinks it really is something they should have worked out by now. It just makes sense. And recently, she had started spending more time at James and Sirius’ house, where their chemistry has only become more obvious, almost painfully so. Remus seems to spend about ninety-nine percent of his own time there and is constantly disappearing into Sirius’ room, very often alone.

Lily denies, of course that being at James’ house so often means she actually enjoys spending time with him, because that would be ridiculous. No, it was just that his company was better than others and she had to have something to do on the weekend (and a fair amount of weeknights too, if she was being honest). But now she has another reason, she is going to make it her mission to get Remus and Sirius together.

She poses this mission statement to James on what was supposed to be a study not-date but was really just them playing video games.

‘So have you ever thought that Remus and Sirius would be good together?’ She asks, during a snack procuring related pause in the game.

James laughs a little, ‘um, yeah, sure.’

‘Okay, not the enthusiasm I was looking for.’ Lily says.

‘No, I mean, yeah I think they’d be great for each other.’

‘Right, so we need to set them up.’ She looks at James sternly, just to make sure he understands the seriousness of her intentions.

Except, when she says this, he has to make a concerted effort not to choke on the chip he’s eating. ‘Sorry, what?’

‘What? You don’t think it’s a good idea?’ Lily’s actually quite offended. She doesn’t have bad ideas.

James looks a little taken aback. ‘No, no, it’s good, it’s good.’ He’s smiling almost oddly. ‘Have you thought about how this setting up is going to work?’

‘Well I was thinking we could plan it out together.’

James blushes at this, as if just the word ‘together’ is in some way romantic. He’s an idiot. Strangely though, Lily isn’t annoyed by that idiocy. ‘Okay…’ He says.

‘James, what did I say about enthusiasm?’

He hurriedly corrects himself. ‘Yes! Okay! Let’s set them up!’

Lily smiles. ‘They’re going to love us for this. We’ll make them see what’s right in front of them.’

\--

Remus and Sirius have an almost unbelievably stable relationship for two seventeen year olds. They’d been dating for three years and not even on and off. They knew they were right for each other from the moment they met and it didn’t take that long for them to confirm that with each other. Now, it’s something they keep mostly to themselves, only James and Peter and James and Sirius’ parents know, it just makes things easier. It’s not that most people don’t know they’re queer, or at least, they don’t go out of their way to keep it a secret, they just never made a deal out of their relationship, not being keen on public displays of affection anyway. It’s something that theirs and loving each other so solidly for so long has made them, in their humble opinion, relationship experts, so they know they have to deal with the ‘James and Lily situation’.

‘It’s becoming painful to witness.’ Sirius laments to Remus, from where they’re laying across his bed, spending an idle afternoon. ‘You know James really had the audacity to tell me they were studying today. I mean _studying_? Come on.’

Remus agrees half solemnly, half amused. ‘I know, and a year ago he would have leaped at the chance to call that a date. It’s like, he acts like she’s into him for years and then the moment she actually is, he says it’s platonic? I don’t get it.’

‘We need to do something about it.’ Sirius says with determination.

‘Or we could just them figure it out naturally?’ Remus suggests, knowing it’s futile.

‘No, no, no, don’t be silly. Lily won’t want to admit she’s into him after so long of denying it and James will want her to make the first move so he doesn’t feel like he’s pressuring her into it.’ Sirius explains. ‘We just need to make sure the idea is planted in Lily’s head so she knows it’s okay to act on it.’

Remus smiles. ‘Okay, I still think it makes it more complicated than it has to be but I’m in.’ Sirius kisses him on the cheek in response.

‘Ugh, they’re the ones making it complicated. Honestly, why can’t everyone be more like us? You like someone, you tell them. It would make everything so much simpler!’ He says.

‘And the ridiculous plots of all those romcoms you love so much obsolete.’ Remus points out.

Sirius has to concede. ‘True. And I _do_ love drama. I guess it’s important that not everyone is as perfect as us then.’ Remus rolls his eyes but grins and Sirius thinks there really isn’t anything much more perfect than that.

‘So we’re going to get them together.’ Remus says.

‘We’re gonna get them together.’ Sirius confirms.

\--

It’s a Monday when Lily, after much plotting, sees her first opportunity to enact Operation Moon and Star, a name James and herself had come up with, after an unreasonable amount of deliberation. She’s in the library with Remus, and he’s getting stressed over his chemistry assignment. Lily thinks she’d really be doing him a favour by taking his mind off it.

‘Hey Remus.’

He takes an earphone out to listen to her. ‘Yep?’ He replies, wasting no time in taking the opportunity to push his work aside.

‘You know Sirius.’ Lily begins. ‘Hmm, I’m not sure. Remind me?’ Remus’ expression remains blank.

Lily sighs. ‘No, oh my god, just, uh, well, I was wondering if he’s into anyone.’

Remus gives her a look which is simultaneously questioning and gives the impression that he’d been asked this many times before and is quite sick of it. ‘I’m just really going to hope that you’re asking for somebody else.’

‘Oh! Yeah, I would never- Mary wanted to know.’ A lie. But one that she hopes will get more out of Remus than downright asking if he thinks Sirius is cute.

‘Um.’ Remus seems hesitant to respond. ‘Well you’ll have to tell Mary she’s out of luck. He hasn’t mentioned her.’

This was not the correct response. ‘Right. But has he mentioned anyone else?’

Remus gives her a look. ‘Not sure how that would affect Mary.’

Lily panics slightly. ‘Uh, well, just so she knows his type…or whatever.’

Remus smiles. ‘Unfortunately I don’t think there’s a ton of crossover between them.’

This was getting her nowhere. Time to try a different tact. ‘I mean, she’s far from the only girl who wants to date him right? You have to admit he’s good looking and charming and-‘

Remus cuts her off. ‘Don’t worry, I know what people think about him.’ He is really starting to get on her nerves.

‘Okay. But what do _you_ think about him?’

‘I’m starting to feel like this was never about Mary.’ Remus shoots her another pointed look. ‘I mean, I like Sirius. I wouldn’t be friends with him if I didn’t. But I’m not going to help you set him up with…someone, or whatever it is you’re asking.’

 _But what if the someone is you!_ Lily wants to scream. ‘I just think it would nice for him to be with someone,’ is what she says instead. He’s always getting asked out but never says yes.’

Remus raises an eyebrow. ‘Exactly, don’t you think there’s a reason for that?’

Lily spends the rest of the day pondering what this is supposed to mean and going over her intel for James. Clearly they had to come up with something more complicated than a conversation. Remus is too good at dodging speculation.

\--

‘So Lily was being weird to me today.’ Remus tells James, Sirius and Peter after school that day. They’ve gotten ice cream, a Monday tradition, and are gathered outside the little shop, Fortescue’s, people-watching and avoiding responsibilities. Peter has just finished a dramatic recount of how he managed to get a detention in his first lesson, ‘I only skipped the first twenty minutes!’ and James has gone on his daily rant about how ‘Lily is just so sweet, did you guys see how beautiful she looked today? Etcetera, etcetera’ and proceeded to spend a moment staring into the middle distance like she was someone unreachable in a faraway land rather than someone who almost definitely reciprocated his feelings and he could ask out at literally any time. Maybe, Remus thinks, after spending so long with definitively _not_ reciprocated feelings, it was difficult to make the switch in his brain.

‘Weird how?’ Peter asks.

Remus shrugs and goes over Lily’s desperate line of questioning from that morning. ‘And my two possible conclusions are either that she’s into Sirius or wants to know if I’m into Sirius, both of which are pretty fucking hilarious.’ He finishes his explanation.

James’ eyes go a little wide at this idea. ‘Okay, no, please do not even suggest- She is _not_ into Sirius!’

Sirius shoves his shoulder gently. ‘Yeah, we know mate.’ He attempts to give James a knowing look which does not have the intended effect given that James either doesn’t understand or is too caught up thinking about the atrocity that is Sirius and Lily to notice.

‘Okay, yeah, but then she just wants to know if Remus likes Sirius? Is that a normal thing to want to know?’ Peter says.

‘It’s normal if you’re me at thirteen years old but otherwise I don’t think so.’ Sirius says.

James seems to be pulled out of his daydream terrors at this. ‘No. Why would she want to know that? And even if she did, it wouldn’t be _weird_ , it’s a very, _very_ normal thing to want to know. Out of, y’know, curiosity.’ His voice had gone a little too high to be considered normal, that was for sure.

‘ _James_.’ Sirius says in a warning tone.

‘What!?’ Somehow, James sounds even more panicked than before. ‘Stop acting like there’s something going on, there’s nothing going on!’

‘Honestly, I don’t know how you ever get away with anything. I’m going to make a note not to get Lily involved in any rule breaking if this how you behave.’

‘I don’t think you’ll have to try too hard to stop her.’ Remus points out.

‘True. But maybe we shouldn’t judge her so soon. She’s up to something. You’re both up to something.’ Sirius narrows his eyes at James, a move which he pointedly ignores by changing the topic to the new, special edition flavour at Fortescue’s.

Remus and Sirius give each other a Look, over his shoulder. Operation Lames, penned last night, in a spur of (what Sirius says was) genius was going to be joined by Operation Figure out What Lily and James Are Plotting (title to be workshopped later).

\--

The following evening, Lily’s arrival at the Potter household is greeted by James, Sirius, Remus and Peter sitting on the living room couch watching _Clueless_. This seems to her to be an odd activity for a Tuesday night but, she supposes, is not the strangest thing the four of them could be doing, given their track record.

‘Evans!’ Comes a chorus from the couch and she smiles. They are really starting to grow on her.

‘We’re having a movie night.’ Sirius announces.

‘Yeah James said.’ Lily tells him. ‘And I have decided I am not going to question it.’

‘That’s a good rule of thumb for all of our decisions.’ Peter says.

‘Come join us.’ James says, from where he’s taken Lily’s coat and is hanging it up by the door.

The line on the couch shifts over to left, leaving a very small gap for her. When Lily shuffles into the open spot, she is strangely not displeased, there may even have been something akin to a pleasant squirm in her stomach at the fact that she is now sitting half on James’ lap but she tries to pretend that she hasn’t even noticed. James, however, certainly does. He blushes a furious red and doesn’t seem to know where to put his hands. He finally settles on one awkwardly resting on her knee and another around but barely touching her waist. She smiles at him to assure him that this arrangement is acceptable, even though if she was being honest, she would rather they had even more proximity, that his hands held her with more surety. For a moment, she sees them in a different time, one where they’re not squished together out of necessity created by the presence of three other boys but where they’re cuddling together, watching this movie alone, maybe James is playing with her hair and- no, she cuts that thought short. Cuddling with James was not what she was supposed to want, no matter what the soft ache in her heart was telling her.

After a few minutes James and Sirius’ mother comes and brings them snacks which Lily finds rather delightful and they settle into movie watching, running commentary graciously provided by James and Sirius. Except then Remus is tapping Sirius on the shoulder and giving him one of his classic raised eyebrow glances.

‘Oh!’ Sirius says, too loudly. ‘Yeah, we have to go.’

‘What?’ Lily chest sinks. ‘All of you?’

‘No, just Peter, Sirius and I.’ Remus says. ‘You and James can stay here.’

‘Um, why?’ James asks. ‘We’ve just got some _really_ important stuff we have to be doing.’ Sirius says. ‘No time for this nonsense.’

‘Sirius? Are you okay?’ James mocks concern. ‘You do realise we were going to watch _Love Actually_ , right? I have heard you declare multiple times, loudly, that there is nothing more important than that movie.’

‘Okay first of all, Love Actually is not a _movie_ , it’s a _film_. Second of all, sometimes sacrifices have to be made in favour of planning for things that should not be mentioned with certain Head Girls in the room.’

Lily rolls her eyes. It’s not like she doesn’t know about all the stupid shit they get up to. ‘I could point out that James is Head Boy and Remus is a prefect too but I know it won’t make any difference.’

‘Let me rephrase. Prefects who give any shits about upholding that position.’

‘And I’m not included in this?’ James asks.

‘Well you could come and with us and figure out how to change what the time the bell rings to make lunch longer and kick Lily out of your house _or_ you could stay here and watch movies with her. It’s up to you.’ Peter says.

‘Yeah okay have fun.’ James concedes.

They run up the stairs in a rush and leave James and Lily watching Cher picking clothes out of her massive wardrobe and their cheeks deeply reddening which Lily curses inwardly because she’s been alone with James many times and most of those had included her use of as many swearwords as she could think of. Something was so markedly different now though. James was still annoying, sure. But in a sweet way, one that wasn’t at anyone else’s expense and Lily found the times he acted like an idiot kind of endearing. That was a difficult thing to admit, given the amount of times she’d sworn there was not a universe in which she would ever feel anything for him other than disdain, but her feelings were becoming too strong to pretend that they weren’t there. Not that she’s going to do anything about them. Not only because she has way too much pride for that but because now she isn’t even sure how well they would be received. She knows James still likes her. He might not be as forward about it anymore but it’s obvious in the adoring way he looks at her and all his nervous jitters around her. But, she can’t help but think that maybe he’s trying to get over her, maybe he doesn’t need to fall back down to where he’d just picked himself up from.

It’s hours later when Lily realises she really doesn’t understand the appeal of _Love Actually_. What she does understand is the appeal of is James’ impassioned rant about how creepy the storyline with the poster boards really is and how much he hates that it’s framed as romantic.

‘It’s okay James, it’s fictional.’ She tries to calm down his grumbling.

‘Yeah but people do that shit in real life, y’know?’

She definitely does. Lily has more experience than she would like with a certain ex-best friend acting in a similarly creepy way. ‘Yeah…’ It makes her stomach shift unpleasantly at the thought.

James seems to notice her uncomfortable shift. ‘But hey, you have to admit these ones are pretty cute.’ And it was true that the rest of the storylines weren’t nearly as skin-crawling. She’s further comforted by James running his hand up and down her arm, something he seems to be doing unconsciously. She can’t help but notice that despite there now being plenty of room on the couch, she was still practically on top of James, maybe even closer than before. And she really, really did not want to move. It felt so natural, being like this, like she had slotted into place. She finds that focusing on fictional romances is really difficult when your heart is beating a thousand times per minute and you think it’s not unlikely that you’ll straight up implode from the mere fact of your legs touching. This is entirely unfair. What evil part of the universe decided that she needed to have a stupid crush on James Potter? Whatever it was sure has a warped sense of humour. She has a goddamn reputation and idiot, foolhardy, gorgeous boys were not a part of it. Oh, but he was so gorgeous. The appeal of _Love Actually_ , Lily realises, is that James doesn’t seem to notice if she pays more attention to him than the movie. God, she was well and truly fucked.

\--

Remus, Sirius and Peter watch the proceedings from the top of the stairs which Sirius insists is not creepy and Peter insists definitely _is_. Remus is just happy to see their plan working so well. He can see James and Lily giving Sirius and him a run for their money if Operation Lames continues like this.

‘How are we _this_ smart?’ Sirius ponders and Remus rolls his eyes. He does however concede that they at least deserve a high five. Peter holds out a hopeful hand after them and they do have to appreciate his willingness to go along with them if nothing else.

Except maybe they aren’t as clever as they think because even Remus has to admit that James’ gushing is bordering on insufferable. After Lily left, regretfully but with insistence that they had to be at school early tomorrow for a meeting, _remember_ , the four of them retired to Sirius’ bedroom who is also the only one who dares voice Remus’ thoughts aloud from his place cuddled in Remus’ arms.

‘James, we get it. She’s very pretty and very witty and smells like roses or whatever. You’ve said it all before. Like, twelve thousand times.’

James looks deeply offended. ‘Dude. I said she smells like _lavender_. Are you even listening?’ It looks like Sirius realises he’s dug his own grave here and that he’s caught between wanting James to be happy and not wanting to hear him talk about it. ‘But guys, I know I sound like the boy who cried wolf but I think she might actually… _like_ me.’

Peter gives a derisive snort and Remus provides it with a voice. ‘You think?’

‘Wait, really?’ James’ eyes light up. They had never before confirmed these kinds of thoughts because they’d always been thought up somewhat deliriously.

‘How thick are you?’ Sirius asks. ‘I can’t believe I have to be the one to point out that you were literally _snuggling_.’

James considers this. ‘That…she might have just forgotten to move.’

‘Who are you and what have you done with James?’ Peter says. ‘You’re seriously trying to find reasons why she _doesn’t_ like you? Don’t you have like ten page lists of all the tiny reasons why she totally, for sure _does_ like you?’

‘I just don’t want to assume anymore!’ James turns his palms upwards.

‘You can assume when it’s obvious though!’ Remus retorts.

‘But it’s Lily. She _hates_ me.’ James looks slightly miserable at this idea which is odd paired with the glee from just having spent so long in such close proximity to her.

‘Mate, if that’s what you think I can see why you need glasses. You’re fucking blind.’ Sirius says.

‘Ugh.’ James groans, drawing out the sound as long as possible. ‘Just because you’re so good at relationships doesn’t mean you have to have a go at the rest of us.’

‘Relationships plural?’ Sirius questions. ‘Nah. I just got this one figured out.’ He reaches up to ruffle Remus’ hair and tilts his head up to kiss his jaw which somehow still manages to make something in Remus chest spark, even after all this time.

‘Hey, don’t come at us because we have the guts to tell the other we love them.’ Remus pauses. ‘At an appropriate time, not when the other clearly has no interest.’ He adds as a second thought to which James gives him a betrayed sort of look. Remus chooses to ignore this in favour of lacing his fingers with Sirius’ and tracing his love and life lines which earns him a pleased smile. James just glares as if they’re passionately making out in front of him rather than showing the subtlest sign of affection.

‘Your love is so infuriating!’ He grumbles, throwing his head into a pillow, which makes them laugh because the excitement James had upon finding out about their relationship was _intense_ and from then on he had basically been the most supportive friend Remus and Sirius could have asked for.

‘Your pining is infuriating!’ Sirius comes back with. Really, James better thank them for all their help. How lost he would be without them.

\--

The weekend rolls back around which means any responsibilities which may have been bordering on getting done are once again forgotten and crucially, alcohol has been procured. The five of them gather in James’ room with too many beers and not enough good decision making skills.

‘Okay but we can’t just sit here and drink, right?’ Lily says. ‘We should play a game.’

‘And what do you suggest?” Remus asks.

‘Never have I ever?”

‘What a great idea’ Sirius says with a little too much enthusiasm, something of a glint in his eye. Knowing the kind of person he is, Lily doesn’t think that bodes well.

‘Okay but I feel like we all already know what each other have do-‘, Remus starts but is cut off by a nudge and a pointed look from Sirius.

‘Okay, I’ll go first.’ Lily says. Time to put phase two of Operation Moon and Star into action. ‘Never have I ever had a sex dream about someone in this room.’

James gets entirely too flustered at this which Lily thinks is kind of cute. He still drinks which Lily probably would have murdered him in cold blood for a couple of years ago but now she has to admit that it’s making _her_ a little flustered to think about and really not unpleasantly. More importantly though, Remus and Sirius both drink.

‘Okay my turn.’ Sirius says, even though by all means of normal rotation, it is not. ‘Never have I ever wanted to fuck someone but pretended I didn’t.’

Lily inwardly groans as she drinks. She doesn’t know if that was supposed to be pointed or not, but knowing Sirius, it probably was. She’s going to get him back for this.

Peter goes next. ‘Never have I ever changed one of my grades in my report.’ James, Sirius and Remus all drink with looks of mild, but in Lily’s opinion, not nearly enough regret.

‘See, this is why this is a bad idea, we can just target each other with stuff we already know.’ Remus says.

‘That’s why it’s fun.’ Sirius argues.

‘Okay um.’ Remus takes the opportunity to ask next. ‘Never have I ever written a love letter.’

Lily drinks shamefully. At the time she definitely would not have considered her annoyed rants that James really needed to stop being so goddamn pretty if he was going to ruin it by being such an arrogant prick, love letters. But, in hindsight, they were addressed to him and…they really weren’t as mean as she wanted them to be. Also she kind of just wanted to drink. Being the only one who didn’t frequently engage in terrorising the school staff meant she wasn’t nearly as tipsy as the rest of them. She does notice that James and Sirius also drink and she tries to push down the extreme urge to read whatever letters James has been writing.

‘Never have I ever.’ James thinks for a second. ‘Gone through one of those weird animal phases as a kid.’ The other four all drink with varying shades of reddening cheeks. ‘Okay now I have to know.’

‘Okay I stand by the fact that dogs are fucking solid animals.’ Sirius says, taking a sip of beer.

‘In my defence, like half of my year three class had a wolf phase.’ Remus half mumbles.

Peter sighs. ‘Let’s just say I used to watch _Ratatouille_ a lot.’

‘That is…unfortunate.’ Lily says. ‘I was just really into deer. Like I always made my parents stop for like ten minutes if we saw one when we were driving.’

‘Well, that’s adorable.’ James says. ‘Deer don’t get enough credit.’

‘That’s what I always said!’ Lily says, trying to not let this be a thing she actually cares about. But somehow she finds that one, ambiguous sentence sweet, which honestly, is annoying.

‘You guys are weird.’ Sirius raises his eyebrows at them. Lily notices that at some point, he has shifted much closer to Remus, he’s basically leaning his head on his shoulder and their fingers are on the verge of intertwined. Honestly, how can they be that affectionate and not see what’s going on between them?

‘ _Anyway_. My turn.’ Lily changes the subject and concentrating back onto her matchmaking, uses Remus and Sirius’ affections as inspiration. ‘Been oblivious to someone having a crush on me.’ She knows this doesn’t exactly make sense, the key factor being that they’re unaware, so she doesn’t care when neither Remus nor Sirius drink but she’s trying to make a point and she hopes it will sink into their psyche or something. For now, they just laugh and (somewhat infuriatingly) move even closer together. It’s like their taunting her.

After a few more questions, they forget that this is a drinking game and not just drinking and as Lily gets progressively more tipsy, it becomes more difficult to focus on coming up with the right questions to get anything out of Remus and Sirius anyway. It becomes a lot less difficult, however to notice how her body keeps betraying her and moving closer and closer to James, a magnetic force making it feel like it’s critically important to be in as close proximity as possible to him. She wonders if her earlier question could just as well have been directed him. Surely he at least somewhat realises how she feels? Or maybe he really is as dim as she used to think him to be.

He seems to prove her right with what he says next. ‘Okay who’s most likely to be the most beautiful person ever to have lived?’ He’s gazing at Lily like she’s a night sky, which he’d been doing basically ever since the alcohol got to him.

‘That’s…not what we were playing.’ Peter points out.

‘Oh.’ He looks crestfallen. ‘Lily, you should still drink…if you want.’

‘You should be the one drinking.’ She replies and then immediately wonders why the fuck she said it.

‘Clearly _I’m_ the one drinking here.’ Sirius says and Remus nods, thoughtfully.

All three of them drink, Lily’s heart kicking up a fuss over the compliment and she tries to calm it down from its tantrum

‘Well if we’re playing this, then who’s most likely to be way too adorable for their own good?’ Sirius nudges Remus, who blushes and pointedly does not drink.

‘Is this just an excuse for you all to flirt with each other?’ Peter asks, exasperatedly. ‘Because a. you’re fucking terrible at it and b. you could at least attempt to play the game right.’

‘We’re not flirting. We’re simply pointing out facts. And where’s the fun in doing anything right? Sirius says.

‘Right. Facts.’ Lily suddenly feels deeply enthusiastic about the whole situation. ‘Who’s most likely to be so perfect that it’s just really fucking annoying?’ The message doesn’t seem to get through to James, who just stares at her, dumbfounded. ‘ _James_.’ She prompts.

‘ _Oh_.’ He drinks, almost spilling it through his smile.

‘You’re flirting. I’m going to sleep.’ Peter collapses into a pillow, huffing in exaggerated annoyance.

Lily notices that Remus and Sirius are basically on top of each other at this point, mumbling about something through easy laughter and she feels a tangible love there, one that’s bright and soft, one she can only hope they realise they can feel too. She notices James and sees how he notices her and they laugh too, not really about anything, maybe just that they’re lucky enough to be in each other’s company.

\--

Remus and Sirius wouldn’t exactly call it taunting but it was pretty funny playing into what Lily was clearly trying to do. Her needling during the game made this plan that she and James had quite obvious and while it’s not that they would mind her knowing about their relationship at all, it was much more fun to pretend they were two people pining over their best friend and watching her frustration over it grow.

‘She should be focusing on her own, real relationship drama, not our imagined one!’ Sirius laments back in his room, after they’ve left James and Lily in his and Peter has gone home (waking him up involved an insane amount of pillow throwing.)

‘The fact that she could even think we could have relationship drama is so absurd to be honest.’ Remus says and it was true, they’d barely even had a proper fight.

‘Are you okay with it?’ Sirius asks. ‘Her doing this?’

‘Yeah, I don’t mind if she finds out but I feel like we need to milk it right?’

Sirius laughs. ‘Oh definitely. I mean, Lily’s great but I really don’t know how she’s not seeing this. Do you think it’s even crossed her mind that we could be together?’

‘Nope.’ Remus says. ‘So we need to act like we have absolutely no idea what she’s doing. Oh, and make it super obvious without it being _obvious_ , y’know?’

‘I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We are so fucking smart.’ Remus bypasses his usual eye roll response to kiss Sirius instead, pushing him back onto the pillows in the process. They kiss softly, feeling the beating of each other’s hearts and drinking in the feeling of skin against skin, light bursting in the places they connect. Remus can’t help but think this is their real genius. The fact that they get to do this. Loving Sirius sure felt prodigious.

\--

‘So to make their nests, they pierce the edges of the leaves and then sew them together with spider silk.’ James says as they’re heading up to his room after a run on Wednesday. ‘That’s where the name comes from, and the female wraps it around herself to make sure it’s exactly the right size.’ James is really, really cute when he’s excited, especially when it’s about something as nerdy bird facts. It’s this thought that stops Lily from properly registering the state of his room once they reach it. James notices though and she runs right into him where he’s stopped short in the doorway.

Every inch of the room is covered in hearts. Origami hearts, scraps of cut out paper, hearts torn from magazines and papier-mâché hearts hanging from the ceiling. It’s impressive really. Really fucking impressive. They’re everywhere, from the desk, to the curtains, to every single inch of every wall. There are even a few stuck tackily to the ceiling. James is running his hand through his hair to an almost worrying degree and Lily has crossed her arms over her chest in a bid to look angry although that is definitely not the word she would use to describe how she’s feeling. She knows this is a joke, so really it doesn’t make sense to feel anything but annoyance and the butterflies fluttering their way down her throat, into her stomach surely got the wrong memo. This is _not_ a butterflies situation. Although, butterflies making their presence known when James was around was the bane of her existence so she shouldn’t really be surprised.

‘Lily, I swear this wasn’t me.’ James says, looking even more flustered then she feels.

She weighs the pros and cons of teasing him and decides there are far more positives; seeing him go even redder for one. ‘Yeah, this would be far too much effort for you. Would have been totally sweet though.’

James is all limbs and when he panics, it’s like they’ve doubled. ‘No! I mean, I would do this. I mean, I wouldn’t but like- The effort. If you…I would put in the effort for you.’

Which really is quite a sweet thing to say and turns Lily’s swarm of butterflies into a certified hoard. She of course, would never let this on. ‘Sirius sure has a lot of time on his hands.’ She says, because it’s pretty obvious who did this, even if (as she’s sure is the case) he wanted to be all clever about it.

‘He needs a hobby.’ James agrees, moving into the room. ‘I can take them down.’

Lily takes his wrist to stop him from reaching up to tear down a particularly large and imposing heart. ‘Just leave them, he went to all this effort, let him have some kind of glory.’ ‘He doesn’t deserve glory.’

James grumbles but drops his hand anyway. That’s when they notice the rose petals strewn across the bed, in what Lily supposes was supposed to look like a carefree and totally romantic but is actually quite a methodical fashion. ‘Oh for Christ’s sake.’ James brushes a few of them away with more annoyance than anyone has probably responded to rose petals before.

‘Hey, at least they smell nice.’ Lily realises she’s just coming up with excuses for James to leave the room how it is but can’t bring herself to be frustrated with herself over it. She used to read a lot of trashy romance novels and she can’t deny herself this awfully cliché moment.

She pulls James over to his bed and throws herself onto it, used to treating it pretty much as her own at this point. In fact she’d started keeping some of her things at James’ house. Nothing major, just deodorant, a toothbrush, that sort of thing, but it’s only just hitting her that that’s something girlfriends do. She pushes the thought from her mind. ‘Anyway, what were you saying before? About the tailorbirds?’

James’ eyes light up immediately and it makes something tingle under Lily’s skin. God he’s so adorable. ‘Yeah! Okay when the babies are ready to fly…’ Lily lets him talk, listening still because she doesn’t want to be rude and it _is_ pretty interesting but appreciating the words themselves more than their actual content. She had told him to shut up so often that it was nice to just let him talk.

They end up lying there, facing each other, the sun from the open window washing over them and the trees rustling in time with their breathing. At some point, James trailed off and they found they didn’t really need to talk about anything at all. It felt good to be able to remain there in comfortable silence. Lily always thought that was the sign of a strong bond so it warms something in her chest to know she could have that with James, more than any heart themed room decorating ever could.

Softly, their fingers begin to intertwine. It’s hesitant, neither of them confident enough in whatever it is they’re creating, but becomes firmer, James pressing his thumb to the inward of her palm, running circles, mapping the lines indented there. Lily runs her own fingers over the back of his hand with the same precision, filling the gaps between his knuckles and drawing patterns over the skin. She’s overcome with such a strong desire to kiss that skin, like a flash of lightning, or maybe it’s more like a wave that has been poised to wash over her for weeks or months or years. She wants to kiss his knuckles, his fingertips, his love line. She wants to kiss _him_. They’re so close, their noses on the verge of brushing, it would be so, so easy. And she doesn’t think she’s ever wanted something so badly in her life. She feels the want of it right under her ribcage, through her veins, running through every atom of her. Kissing James Potter has suddenly and terrifyingly become absolutely urgent, essential to her continuation as a functioning human.

‘You’ve been home for a full half an hour and I have not received one single measly speck of praise!’ Sirius’ voice comes ringing out from the hallway. Lily, entirely absurdly, feels like she might cry.

The door swings open dramatically and Sirius stands there with Remus a few steps behind, looking like he might be experiencing a similar emotion to Lily. He takes one look at them, and their…close position and changes tact completely, eyes widening a bit. ‘Okay, yeah, actually never mind, you can tell me how amazing I am later…have fun.’

James and Lily look at each other, James with a deeply long suffering expression, Lily stuck somewhere between pain and amusement. They sit up with approximately thirty thousand regrets and focus their most parental glares on Sirius. Lily squashes the thought that they would make excellent parents. Lily can see Sirius physically try not to cower, to no avail. ‘Sirius.’ James says, tone gracefully measured. ‘On a scale of one to one hundred, how annoying to you think you are?’

Lily, Sirius and Remus all repress a smile. ‘Uh, I’m going to go with…four?’ Sirius attempts, awfully, tragically, humorously incorrect.

James throws his middle finger up at him. ‘This wasn’t even original.’ He says, gesturing around the room. ‘A confetti canon maybe? Projection? Little cupids flying around? This was so not worth it.’

‘Okay, in my defence, I do not have the ability to either acquire cupids or make them fly but man, the confetti canon is _such_ a good idea. Remus can you write that down?’ He gets an eye roll in response.

‘You know what else is a good idea?’ James asks. ‘You getting the fuck out of my room.’

‘Right. Yes. That.’ Sirius’ eyes are suddenly looking everywhere but at them. ‘Eat your hearts out.’

And with that, the door closes with as much drama as it was opened. Kissing James after direct permission from his brother seems pretty weird so they choose not to mention it. But the almost of it lingers in the air and with it is the fact that they haven’t talked about the reason behind this whole scheme in the first place. There’s something here. Sirius can see it. Lily can see it and she’s pretty sure James can see it. It holds there between them, tugging their hearts steadily closer and closer together and Lily is sick of not letting herself admit it. Stubbornness only gets you so far and when there’s so much to gain on the other side of whatever leap she needed to take, it felt silly to hold herself back.

For now though, their hands link back together, their breaths settle back into unison and they imagine their hearts beating in the same rhythmic, perfect time.

\--

‘Lily! Are you busy?’ Sirius catches Lily as she’s leaving school the next day, coat pulled up against spitting rain.

‘Nope, why?’

‘Remus is having a Bad Day, I’m enlisting you to help make it better.’ Remus being sad was basically a catastrophe for Sirius and while he always wanted to let Remus feel whatever he needed to feel, it never hurt to give as much support (usually in the way of sugar and cuddles) as possible.

‘Wow, I’m honoured. What do you need me to do?’

‘You’re on chocolate duty.’ Sirius rummages in the front pocket of his bag for some money and holds it out to her.

‘Oh, no don’t worry, it’s fine.’ She declines.

‘You’re the one doing me a favour.’ He presses it into her hand.

‘Okay. Thanks. Anything in particular?’ She asks.

‘If it looks like it would rot your teeth on impact then it’s probably perfect.’

‘Got it. Do you want to meet back here?’

‘Yep. Twenty minutes?’

‘Sounds good.’ And with that, she’s headed off down the street, trying to avoid getting wet, a feat which is becoming increasingly impossible.

Sirius turns in the opposite direction towards the less popular area of town, at least amongst high school students due to the high concentration of antique shops and second hand bookshops, which is basically orgasm material for Remus. Sirius has to stop himself from smiling at the mere thought of Remus given that he’s still in public and randomly grinning to oneself while thinking about ones boyfriend is for some reason not deemed socially acceptable. Ridiculous.

After a few minutes of walking and desperate but ultimately futile attempts to prevent his hair from getting wet, Sirius pushes his way into a particularly old and stuffy teashop. This place did all the weird, hipster tea flavours about a century before anyone actually thought to drink them and it hasn’t looked like it has been renovated since then either. Sirius has to duck to get through the doorway and turn sideways in places to get between the narrow shelves.

He’s recognised by the owners, married women who he thinks must be around ninety-five and are always beaming like they’ve just been told the best news of their lives. ‘Here for that boy of yours?’ One of them, Rosie, asks.

‘You know me too well.’ Sirius beams. She smiles back.

‘And tell me. What kind of day is it?’

‘A melancholy one.’ This had become somewhat of a routine. Sirius would tell them how Remus was feeling, whatever kind of mood it might be and they would pick out the perfect tea for the occasion. Sirius thinks it’s actually a superpower, like they’re empaths or something and they just decided to use it to recommend really good hot drinks.

‘Melancholy? I know just the thing!’ Rosie’s wife, Greta says. She fumbles around for a minute, scanning the shelves which are full of mostly loose leaf teas in old-style tins and glass containers. ‘Lavender and holy basil.’ She hands Sirius the tin which he takes gratefully. ‘The lavender is calming and the basil helps to lift your mood.’

Sirius thanks them. ‘Your wisdom never ceases to amaze.’ He says, paying them.

‘Thank _you_. You go take care of him now.’ Rosie says, ushering Sirius out of the shop.

‘Of course.’ The door swings shut behind him, bell twinkling cheerily.

Back out in the rain, Sirius hurries back in the direction of the school. He has to wait a few minutes for Lily who, when she does appear, has somehow acquired a bright red, spotty umbrella. She’s carrying a huge bakery box and looking pleased with herself.

‘How’d you go?’ He asks her, to which she responds by opening the box, shielding the cakes inside with the umbrella. The confectionary in question are, of course, a rich chocolate, but far more amusingly, are heart-shaped, topped with swirly decorative heart chocolates, just in case either point didn’t quite get across.

‘I hope they’re okay.’ She says, watching closely for his reaction.

Sirius grins at her, trying to hold back a laugh at this total setup of a romantic gesture. ‘Couldn’t be more perfect Lily.’

She looks kind of surprised. ‘Oh! Cool.’

‘Right, because we do love him yeah?’

She narrows her eyes. ‘Yeah. _We_ do.’

‘Should we go take them to him then?’ He asks.

‘Oh, well I was thinking you should give them to him.’ She says shiftily.

‘You got them for him!’

‘Yeah, on _your_ request. Anyway, I said I would…go see James so, yeah, you’re going to have to go alone. Sorry!’ She says.

‘Oh, how perfect, James and Remus are together at our house right now.’ Sirius smirks at her.

Lily blushes furiously but smiles through it. ‘Great! Means you get an umbrella for your precious hair.’

‘Hey!’

‘You cannot lie to me and say you weren’t freaking out over it.’ Lily looks at him sternly as they start walking. As they splash each other in puddles, Sirius realises that a year ago, this would have been pretty much intensely awkward. He never thought he had anything in common with Lily, sure he thought she was kind of cool but could never really see why James was so infatuated with her. Now, he thinks it’s a shame they were never friends earlier. He could talk with her for hours, even if the talking was mostly arguing, it’s the fun kind of arguing where it doesn’t really matter and no one’s really angry and it works because their senses of humour are so well aligned. He’s grateful that she understands his shit with Regulus too, of course he appreciates all his friends do to help but none of them grew up with siblings and can’t properly understand the feeling of simultaneously having someone so close and so far away from you. Someone you would do anything for and who you often feel like you hate. Recently, they’d been talking about that a lot too, with a lot less righteous googling involved. Basically, if Lily turns out to be his one day sister in law, Sirius will not be complaining.

Sirius and Lily arrive home to find Remus, James and Peter in the kitchen, eating shredded cheese out of a packet and looking miserable which honestly, just makes sense.

‘Not to ruin what looks like an absolutely thrilling time.’ Sirius announces his presence loudly, as always. ‘But we come bearing gifts.’

James, as he was prone to do upon an unexpected sighting of Lily, absolutely ceases to maintain anything that could be likened to normal human behaviour and becomes what instead far more closely resembles a human-shaped formation of nerves. No amount of hair ruffling or glasses adjusting could ever suffice. Sirius notices Lily blushing at this with satisfaction.

‘Yes Remus, Sirius was just so thoughtful and was, like, _really_ worried about you.’ Lily emphasises.

‘So was Lily.’ Sirius adds.

It’s Remus’ turn to blush, catching Sirius’ eye. ‘Well, thank you, both of you.’

‘Yep, but mostly Sirius.’ Lily says. ‘Anyway, James, Peter, don’t you think we should leave them to their cake?’

‘Wait there’s cake?’ James asks. ‘You know, I think Remus needs company, we should probably just-‘

He is promptly cut off by Lily, who drags him out of the room, followed by a slightly bewildered looking Peter. Sirius thinks spending time with Lily probably comes higher on his list of priorities than cake anyway.

‘You really didn’t have to do this.’ Remus says, giving Sirius a soft look once their friends are in the other room.

‘Yeah, I know.’ Sirius says, putting the kettle on to boil. ‘But sometimes I want to do nice things for my boyfriend.’ He’s struck, as he often is, by how deeply that statement is true, how he would do literally anything for Remus, as cliché as that sounds.

‘I just don’t want you to feel like you have a responsibility to make things better for me. I don’t want to be your problem.’

This is such an entirely absurd thought that it takes Sirius a second to comprehend. ‘My _problem_? Remus, you’re like the furthest thing from a problem it’s possible to be. You’re my resolution.’ This earns a smile from Remus, which is basically Sirius’ entire goal in life. ‘And about making things better, I don’t want you to feel like I think this will fix this, I know that’s not how this works. I just want to make it more…bearable. And even if _that_ doesn’t work, at least you get cake, right?’

‘I so do not deserve you.’

‘Oh my god, Remus, my love, there is nothing good in this world you don’t deserve. I’m serious.’ He’s desperate for this point to get through so he wraps his arms around Remus to drive it home. Sirius works better in touch than language and he hopes the feeling of being held will convey something his words can’t. He kisses Remus on the forehead, gentle, lingering.

‘I just love you so much.’ Remus says softly, like it’s a kind of magic where the power will be broken if spoken too loud.

‘Oh Remus, I love you so much, it’s like, kind of hard to believe.’ Definitely magic, Sirius thinks. The moment is broken however, by the whistling of the kettle.

Letting the tea steep, Sirius turns his attention from his fully formed romance, to the one Lily has so dutifully been kindling. ‘So Lily got these for me to give to you.’ He presents the box to Remus.

Remus laughs. ‘Well this is adorable.’

‘So hypothetically, if you weren’t already madly in love with me, would these make that happen?’

‘Uh, without a doubt.’ Remus deadpans. ‘The _charm_ , the _romance_. It’s irresistible.’

‘The cake is irresistible or I’m irresistible?’

‘Both. But mainly the cake.’

‘I would be offended but I really can’t blame you. I’m getting serotonin just looking at them.’ Sirius says, stirring what many would consider to be a ridiculous amount of sugar into Remus’ tea but what Remus considers positively conservative.

Sirius has always thought that Remus Lupin drinking tea should be made illegal, it does too many things to his heart. Whole acrobatics routines performed by butterflies. Huge, earth shattering explosions. Warm, fuzzy blankets with extra comforting properties. It couldn’t possibly be good for a person to have so much happening in their chest at the one time. God, he will never get over how in _love_ he is with this boy.

‘Okay. Can I do anything else for you?’ He asks.

Remus considers for a second. ‘Mm, kisses would be nice.’

‘Kisses? I can absolutely do kisses.’

Sirius places a gentle kiss on the tip of Remus’ nose, his temples, his cheeks, jawbone, eyelids, cupids bow, lips, trying to make every one of them feel like absolute and adoring love and care. He doesn’t think, no matter how long they have and will get to do this for, he will ever get over how lucky he is. This could never be normal, every single time, kissing Remus is positively earth-shattering.

The way Remus is looking at him suggests that he feels a similar way. ‘Thank you’

‘Of course.’ Sirius gives a final kiss to the bridge of Remus’ nose.

‘Okay, should we go save Peter from his third wheeling?’

‘Oh god, the poor guy.’ As much as it is painful to witness James and Lily’s heart eyes that they refuse to acknowledge, it’s even worse to do it alone.

\--

When Saturday rolls back around, it brings with it the next (and hopefully final) stage of Operation Moon and Star.

‘Okay, so, you know the plan?’

‘Yes. Lily you’ve gone over it many times.’ James is very clearly holding back signs of frustration. Even if he is annoyed, Lily can’t help but notice how he smiles when she relays their plans.

‘Okay. We’ve got this. We’ll have love confessions left, right and centre by the end of the day.’ Lily says with confidence.

‘Yeah.’ James looks less sure. ‘Right, they’ll be…all over each other.’

‘Not with that attitude. Come on James, we are expert match matchers. Romance connoisseurs. Gods of love.’ Lily wonders if this is strictly true, considering their own track record, but decides that dwelling on it would only lower her confidence levels.

James raises his eyebrows at her but laughs. It’s kind of intoxicating. ‘Let’s do this then.’ He offers his hand for a high-five which she enthusiastically returns.

The Plan involved getting ice cream which Lily thinks is genius because no one could refuse ice cream. Walking to the shop with James, Remus and Sirius, Lily tries her best not to be distracted by the former’s hand brushing hers as it swings with his step, in order to listen to the latter two’s ridiculously clear flirting. Honestly, one would think they’d been dating for years at the sight of them.

There’s a line outside Fortescue’s as always, which for once is a good thing, as it gives James and Lily the opportunity to deflect. They have to be subtle about it though, which requires some waiting. Which is a problem, because waiting gives Lily too much time to become increasingly aware of James’ proximity to her and the way he’s talking and the way his hair is rustling up in the wind and the way his eyes catch the late morning light and, and, and.

She’s snapped out of her embarrassingly lovesick state by Sirius, speaking loudly and with what her assessment would deem to be mock surprise. ‘Oh, dammit, I just remembered, Remus, we have to go!’

‘Oh! Yeah, how could we have forgotten, we absolutely do not have time for ice cream.’

‘What?’ Lily says, scrunching up her eyebrows. ‘No, _James and I_ have to go.’

James is looking hilariously panicked. ‘Yeah, yeah, Lily and I have just like so much stuff to do.’ He says, completely forgetting their alibi (‘we have to help Lily’s parents with cooking for her aunt’s birthday’) and instead opting for the most suspicious sounding sentence ever. ‘You two on the other hand.’ He continues, shooting a glance at Lily for approval, ‘do not have anywhere to be.’

‘Yeah, you have so much stuff to do like staying here together.’ Sirius says.

This was not going according to plan. Lily hates when things don’t go according to plan. Well, fuck it. Time for a last ditch effort. ‘Okay, but just hypothetically, don’t you think it would be nice to spend some time together.’

‘Um. We spend a lot of time together.’ Remus says, looking amused.

‘Right, but like maybe in a different context.’ She’s given blank stares. ‘Like…a date-like context?’ This all suddenly seems like a terrible idea. She nudges James for backup.

He startles like a deer in headlights. ‘Yeah guys.’ He coughs, ‘like how would you hypothetically feel about a hypothetical date that you _could_ go on right now. Hypothetically.’

Remus and Sirius have been trying diligently through all of this to keep from laughing but have clearly reached their limit. Once again moving closer together, fingers intertwining, just slightly, almost imperceptibly. Something dawns on Lily. Oh. Oh. How could she have been this stupid? She always picks up on things like this. Oh my god, _obviously_.

‘I think we’re pretty capable of planning our own dates James.’ Sirius says, clearly highly enjoying himself. ‘In fact I believe we had something planned for tomorrow.’

‘I cannot believe this.’ Lily says, burying her face in her hands.

‘Really?’ Remus asks.

‘I mean, no okay I can absolutely believe it but just…I was so certain I was going to be the one to make _you_ see it, not the other way around!’

‘Yeah. Which honestly? A truly entertaining endeavour to watch you go on.’ Sirius says.

‘Don’t feel like an idiot or anything though.’ Remus adds. ‘We try to not to make it obvious.’

Which makes Lily think of the other side of all of this. ‘Oh my god. I’m so sorry. Shit. Now I’ve made you tell me.’ A wave of guilt rushes over her. ‘Fuck, I really don’t want you to be uncomfortable or do anything you don’t want to do.’

It’s Sirius and Remus’ turns to look panicked. ‘Oh!’ Remus says. ‘No, trust me, if we didn’t want you to know, you wouldn’t.’

‘Yeah, I mean, we don’t blame for wanting to do something about this clear perfection.’ Sirius points between Remus and himself. ‘I too would think it was a tragedy if we weren’t together. Emergency action would be required.’

Remus grins. ‘We just already averted that catastrophe.’

Sirius looks at Remus like every sentence that comes out of his mouth is a siren call and Lily feels such a huge burst of happiness for them, almost relief that they were able to find each other and have the love that she knows they deserve, that she can’t help but smile, one that matches their own.

‘Mm hmm.’ Sirius hums. ‘Yeah, so we all know Remus and I have an incredible relationship that we are very, very clever for instigating, but what about _this_ catastrophe?’ He gestures between James and Lily.

‘Um, excuse me?’ James looks offended.

‘Yeah so how would you two feel about an entirely not hypothetical date?’ Remus asks.

Lily very casually covers her cheeks with her hands to hide their rapid and absolutely traitorous reddening. James opts instead to devolve into a coughing fit which, goddammit, why on earth does Lily find that cute?

‘How would you two feel about stopping all this meddling in my rela- with this?’ James, having recovered from what was starting to seem like a serious health hazard, says.

‘Meddling? But I thought you loved meddling?’ Sirius says. ‘And look, you clearly need some help. This is painful to watch. Like, sickening. Like, you two enter a room with me and I am immediately nausea-‘

‘Yeah, okay, okay, we got it.’ James puts a finger to Sirius’ lips.

Lily can’t deny he has a point though. It’s painful to her to spend so much time with James and not feel like she can do anything about it, all because of past grudges. People can change, James has changed, she’s changed and when she thinks about it, she’d been trying so hard not to fall in love with him for years. It’s all been building up inside of her, all the times when she denied to herself that she wanted desperately to kiss him, or feel his hands wrapped around her or feel his body against hers. All the times when he did something undeniably sweet, or thoughtful or caring, when she could see just how strongly he loved the people in his life but just kept telling herself he was a dickhead in spite of it. All of it has culminated into one big ache in her chest, a longing so intense she can hardly think for it. She wants him. Badly.

‘James…’ She ventures. ‘I- shit, I feel the same way.’

‘You can’t stand being in a room with me?’ James looks half like this makes no sense whatsoever and half like he believes it completely.

‘No you idiot. I _only_ want to be in a room with you.’

‘Oh.’ James looks dumbfounded for a moment. ‘ _Oh_.’ He gets extremely fidgety which does something to Lily’s own ability to stand still.

‘I’m sick of not doing anything about it, okay? You can tell me if you don’t want it anymore but I can’t keep acting like I don’t…I mean, James I think I might be in love with you?’ She says it as a question but it’s not, not in the slightest. She loves him solidly, full stop. She loves him, exclamation mark. And she’s going to let herself love loving him.

‘…’ James looks like he could be about to cry, or maybe faint, or maybe burst into hysteric laughter. Or probably all three at once.

‘Um. James. It would be really nice if you said something.’ A storm has decided to rage inside of Lily’s chest, entirely at odds with the sunshine that feels like it came out just for them, covering them gently with light, filling her up with it. ‘Just because, I’m kind of terrified right now, um-‘

‘Can I kiss you?’ James cuts her off, face morphed into something positively ecstatic. Lily thinks she’s most likely mirroring his stupid grin. Her whole body’s tingling, like it knows something incredible is about to happen to it. The storm has turned to bright, intense summer sun.

‘Yes. Yes please do that.’

Kissing James is like watching a sunrise. It’s like being _inside_ a sunrise, like light bursting around and within her, unable to be contained within her one, small body. There is ecstasy in it, full and bright and like nothing she has ever done before or could have ever imagined herself doing. They’re smiling into it, hardly able to stop themselves from laughing with the joy of it. So they let themselves. James pulls her to him and she nests her face in the crook of his neck, marvelling in the fact that this is something she is doing, that she gets to be this close to him, gets to kiss him, gets to love him. She raises her head to kiss him again, trying to soak in every movement of it, not because she thinks she’ll lose it but because she wants every time she kisses James to be etched in her memory forever and she hopes that there will be many hundreds, thousands of times. And then she’s being lifted off the ground and James is hugging her, bone-crushingly, lovingly and swinging her around and when she looks him, there are tears in his eyes. She reaches under his glasses to wipe them away, laughs at what a sap he is. Loves what a sap he is. Loves, loves, loves.

‘I very definitely think I might be in love with you too Lily.’ James says, so joyfully it makes sparks burst in Lily’s chest. She is so grateful for this.

Applause erupts from Remus and Sirius, who Lily only just remembers are even there. Sirius wolf whistles. ‘Ah, young love.’ He wipes a pretend tear away from his eye. ‘So beautiful.’ Remus swats at him but their hands end up tangled together.

‘Cool. Now when everyone freaks out about this at school we can take all the credit.’ Remus says.

‘Hey, you had literally no effect on this and you know it.’ James protests. And Lily is struck by the knowledge that she isn’t anxious about what people at school will think about this, in fact, she wants them to know. She’s proud to be in love with James.

‘Yeah, okay. And I’ll still figure out a way to take responsibility for you two.’ She says to Remus and Sirius. ‘I’m sure I…strengthened your relationship.’

‘Yeah. I was going to break up with him before the cake.’ Remus, predictably, deadpans.

‘Okay why don’t we all just agree that we are all masterminds, who basically invented the concept of love?’ James suggests.

‘Yeah, that sounds about right.’ Lily agrees and to be honest, right now, hand intertwined with this beautiful, heart stopping boy, it really does feel like they did. Like love was invented the day Lily Evans met James Potter and Sirius Black met Remus Lupin and it would remain that way, strong and unyielding, forever.

**Author's Note:**

> While initially totally unintentionally, this fic was somewhat inspired by Much Ado About Nothing (and the webseries adaption Nothing Much to Do), because James and Lily are basically Benedick and Beatrice right?


End file.
